By Dustin | In undertaking this project, we
are trying to follow latter-day prophets.
MILESTONES

In 2010, a new tradition: a yearly letter
to family and friends to wish them happy
holidays and update them on our lives.
A transcript of Fiona’s naming and blessing.
By Fiona | Fiona puts in her two cents.
Fiona’s birth and homecoming, from the
hospital to Fiona’s 0th birthday party.
TRAVELOG

16

12 Fiona’s first journeys by rail

By Susan | Charleston and Fredericksburg.
OUR TIMES

16 Estamos bien en el refugio, los 33

By Donald G. McNeil Jr. | the new york times
The big news of the past six months: the rescue
of 33 men trapped in a Chilean mine for 69 days.

COLOPHON
Our family
Susan Jane Hibdon Joyce,
Dustin Tyler Joyce
Fiona Claire Joyce
Dialann is published quarterly, in
the months of January, April, July, and
October.
The nameplate on the front cover
includes a portion of a photo of the
sculpture at Platz der Synagoge in
Göttingen, Germany. The photo was
taken by Wikimedia Commons user
Daniel Schwen on 2 March 2007.
The original can be found at http://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goe_
Platz_der_Synagoge_Detail_2_noCA.
jpg. It is used herein under the the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Alike 2.5 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.5) license,
http://www.creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en.
The photo on the front cover was
taken 3 December 2010;
the photo on the back cover was taken
19 September 2010.
Sans serif text is set in Hypatia Sans Pro.
Serif text is set in Adobe Text Pro.
The motif color used in this issue is
C=100, M=50, Y=0, K=0
This issue was designed on a HewlettPackard G62-340US laptop, with 3
GB of RAM, a 320 GB hard drive, and
an AMD Athlon II P340 dual-core
processor with a speed of 2.2 GHz.
The software used includes InDesign,
Photoshop, and Illustrator in Adobe
Creative Suite 5, as well as Microsoft
Word 2010. The operating system was
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

OPINION

18 The city is the place for us
18

By Dustin | The city’s beauty is why we live
and raise our children here.
WE BELIEVE IN CHRIST

19 Hearing with our ears—and our hearts

By Dustin | It seemed a silly question. But
the Spirit had something profound to teach.
CLOSING THOUGHTS

20 The new lives it feels we’ve always had

By Susan | Fiona’s arrival has changed our
lives, yet we can’t remember life without her.

Did you know? Fiona’s baby blessing was given during a sacrament meeting in the meetinghouse at 5460 Western Avenue,

Chevy Chase, Maryland. This is the same building where Susan and Dustin’s wedding reception was held on 1 March 2008. SEE PAGE 6

OPENING
THOUGHTS
By DUSTIN

“Get a notebook, a
journal that will last
through all time, and
maybe the angels
may quote from it
for eternity. Begin
today and write
in it your goings
and comings, your
deepest thoughts,
your achievements
and your failures,
your associations and
your triumphs, your
impressions and your
testimonies.”
PRESIDENT
SPENCER W. KIMBALL

J A N U A RY 2 0 1 1

Welcome to our
family magazine

W

elcome to the first issue of
Dialann, our family magazine. We
hope that this is the beginning of not
just a new chore or habit for our family, but the
start of a tradition and a fun activity that we can
all work on together.
Why a family magazine?
Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints have long counseled members to write
and maintain a regular journal. A search for the
word journal on the Church’s official Web site,
lds.org, yields numerous articles on this topic
that have been printed in the Church’s magazines
over the past four decades. One of these, “The
Angels May Quote from It” by President Spencer
W. Kimball, was first published in The New Era in
October 1975 and then reprinted in that magazine
in February 2003. In this article, President
Kimball writes:
Get a notebook, a journal that will last
through all time, and maybe the angels
may quote from it for eternity. Begin today
and write in it your goings and comings,
your deepest thoughts, your achievements
and your failures, your associations and
your triumphs, your impressions and your
testimonies. Remember, the Savior chastised
those who failed to record important events.
As much as Susan and I hate to admit it,
we’ve not been the best at keeping a journal in
our marriage. In short, we’ve not kept one at all.
Sure, we’ve recorded important events in our
lives—our wedding, trips we’ve taken, and so
on. But we’ve never had a systematic, organized
way to do it, which means that we’ve never
established a regular habit of it. And now, with
the addition of Fiona to our family, the need to
make a record our lives, including the exciting
and exceptional as well as the quotidian and
mundane, is more urgent than ever.
So in this new year we have resolved to
begin a family journal. We decided that it should
take the form of a family magazine for a number
of reasons. We felt that a journal in this format
would be more fun than blank pages waiting to
be filled with lines of text—and if it’s more fun,

we’re more likely to do it and make a habit of it.
We plan on publishing this magazine through
Blurb, which means it will be of a high quality,
and we will be able to easily get reprints of it
whenever we choose, in case of loss or other
factors. A family magazine will more easily allow
us to include photos and creative use of text and
layouts—more engaging and “multimedia”, if you
will. And that means that not only will it be more
interesting now but also in years to come, and
something we will be more likely to look at and
read decades from now.
We hope to publish Dialann on a quarterly
basis, in January, April, July, and October.
Each issue will be approximately 20 pages (the
minimum number of pages required by Blurb to
produce a publication in this format) and will
highlight our lives in text and photos over the
previous three months. (This issue, being our
first and fairly closely following Fiona’s birth, will
actually cover the past six months since she was
born.)
Why the name?
In situations such as these, choosing a name
tends to be the most simple and yet most difficult
decision to be made. After all, how do you
choose a title that accurately reflects not only
what you’re trying to accomplish but also your
motives and hopes as you complete your task? In
the end, this is our journal, and the best word to
summarize this effort is just that—journal.
But that’s a boring title. So we repeated
what we did the last time we had to decide on an
important name: Fiona. We looked to our Irish
heritage. Dialann is Irish for journal.
We are very excited about this new endeavor. It
intimidates us some; it’s a lot to take on in our
lives that are already so busy with other activities.
But we are putting our trust in the counsel of the
Lord’s prophets and hoping that we truly will be
blessed as we undertake this effort. d

Independence Day
Fiona is born
Fiona comes home from the hospital
Dustin to Chicago (business)

August
18–22

Dustin to Utah for Daniel and Tiffany’s endowment and
sealing
31–1 Sep Dustin to Twin Cities (business): Financial Planning Day
September
14
District of Columbia primary election day: Vincent
Gray defeats incumbent Adrian Fenty in the Democratic
primary
22–24
Family to Charleston, West Virginia
Fiona’s first trip via Amtrak
29
Susan returns to work
Dustin begins working from home to look after Fiona
October
2–3
8–9
15–16
24
30
31

180th Semiannual General Conference
Dustin to Denver (business): Financial Planning Day
Dustin to Twin Cities (business): Financial Planning Day
Susan is called as a Primary teacher
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on the National Mall
Halloween: Fiona dresses up as a bunny

November
2
Election Day: Republicans take control of the United
States House of Representatives; Vincent Gray elected
mayor of the District of Columbia
5
Susan’s birthday
5–6
Family to Fredericksburg, Virginia
12–13
Dustin to Indianapolis (business): Financial Planning
Day
25 Thanksgiving
December
15
With a final payment of $4,363.10, Susan and Dustin pay
off the last of their student loans and become 100% debtfree
16–19
Susan to San Antonio to add teacher certifications in
English as a Second Language (ESL) and German
21
Dustin to Atlanta (business) to meet with the Foundation
for Financial Planning
25 Christmas
27
Dustin resigns from his job
31
New Year’s Eve

4

Our first annual
family holiday letter
Washington, D.C.
December 2010
Dear family and friends,

PHOTO TAKEN 3 DECEMBER 2010; COURTESY OF YÁNDARY ZAVALA

W

e hope that this is the beginning
of what will become an annual
tradition. We are nearing the end of
a very eventful year for our family. Not only did
Target begin selling a store brand of our favorite
cereal—Blueberry Crunch®—Dustin also bought
a purple tie.
Oh, and our family grew by 50% with the
addition of Fiona Claire Joyce.
Fiona was born on Thursday, 15 July, in
Washington, D.C., which means that she was
born without a voting representative in Congress.
We are amazed by how quickly she has grown
and learned new things. At her last doctor’s
appointment, she weighed 13 pounds, 14 ounces
and was 23¾ inches long. She loves her pacifier,
reading books, modern art (she’s not an art
connoisseur so much as she’s interested in bold
shapes and contrasting colors), and her best
friend, Dinky. Dinky is a squirrel puppet. We
named him after the Dinky Train in Princeton,
New Jersey. Fiona had her first solid food on
Thanksgiving Day, and she just mastered the
Greek alphabet.
Okay, maybe not quite yet. But she’s
working on it.
One of Fiona’s favorite pastimes is riding
around her hometown on the bus. She gets to
sit in our lap and look out the window at all the
fascinating people and buildings passing by. She
also enjoys riding the subway, though the inside
of a tunnel is not quite as interesting as a city
street. Indeed, she enjoys this so much that she
is a 100% car-free baby. That’s right: in her five
months of life, she has never been in a car. Her
transit adventures began two days after she was
born, when she rode the bus and subway home
from the hospital. So, not only is she protecting
the environment and promoting good urbanism,
she’s also building major street cred.
 This photo of our family accompanied
this letter when we posted it on Facebook.

In short, Fiona is an amazing addition
to our family. She is beautiful, with a glowing
personality, and she loves socializing and
exploring the world around her. We are so
fortunate to have her.
The rest of our lives are much as they have
been for the past few years. Susan continues to
teach government at Bladensburg High School
in Prince George’s County, Maryland, just east
of Washington, D.C. Dustin is still doing political
consulting with a downtown D.C. firm, though
he now works from home fulltime to look
after Fiona. We are still living in our beautiful
apartment on Meridian Hill, a mile and a half
north of the White House with a sweeping view
of the nation’s capital from the Washington
Monument to Washington National Cathedral.
(If you ever find yourself needing or wanting
to come to D.C., please accept this as an open
invitation to stay at our place anytime.) In spring
we went to Philadelphia and the surrounding
area for a week, and Fiona took her first train
trip and first overnight trip to Charleston, West
Virginia, in September. While we try to take one
or two big trips each year, and having a baby
has limited us a little bit this year, we are already
working on some big plans for the coming year.
We hope this letter finds you well. We
have certainly appreciated the support you
have provided as we embark on the adventure
of raising a baby. Please let us know if there is
anything we can ever do for you.
We wish you joy and happiness through the
holidays and all the best in the new year.

In 2010 we started a
new tradition: a yearly
letter at Christmastime
to family and friends
to wish them happy
holidays and update
them on our lives.

Always,
Susan, Dustin, and Fiona

5

Fiona’s baby blessing
Fiona Claire Joyce
received her baby
blessing from her
father, Dustin Tyler
Joyce, during the
sacrament meeting of
the Washington DC 3rd
Ward on Sunday, 19
September 2010.

6

notes
1. Luke 2:52

the Book of Mormon and the other scriptures
that we hold to be so dear. We bless you that
you will, in due time, be able to receive all of the
necessary ordinances to be able to return to live
with your Father in Heaven, including baptism,
confirmation, and the ordinances of the temple.
Above all, we bless you with a knowledge of
the reality of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and
of his perfect example to us, that as things go well
in your life you will always remember where your
blessings come from, and that you will always
have a desire to walk in our Savior’s footsteps;
and that at times when things are not so good, or
that you feel that you have made a mistake, that
you will always retain the knowledge that no sin
or mistake or human emotion is beyond the reach
of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and that you
will turn to him in all your hours of need.
Last of all, we bless your parents, your
grandparents, your other family members, and
the teachers, both in school and in church, and
all the others who will work with you throughout
your life, especially in your young years, to raise
you and to teach you. We bless them that they
will always remember that this responsibility
is a stewardship given to them by our Father
in Heaven, and that, above all else, you are his
daughter.
We love you very much, Fiona, and we bless
you with these things and everything else that
you will need in the name of our Savior, Jesus
Christ. Amen. d

PHOTO TAKEN 19 SEPTEMBER 2010

 Fiona with those
who participated in her
blessing (left to right):
■■ Our bishop.
■■ Dustin’s stepfather.
■■ Dustin.
■■ One of Dustin’s mission
companions.
■■ One of Dustin’s friends.

O

ur Father in Heaven, by the
authority of the Melchizedek
Priesthood, we take this child into our
arms to give her a name and a blessing. The name
we give her is Fiona Claire Joyce. Fiona, you’ve
been born into a very loving home, and we bless
you that as you mature and grow physically,
mentally, emotionally, and spiritually that you
will follow the pattern set by our Savior, Jesus
Christ, as he grew “in wisdom and [in] stature,
and in favour with God and man.”1
We bless you physically, that you will grow
normally, without any major illnesses or medical
conditions. And we bless you that at those
times that you are sick that you will be able to
recover quickly and get back to having a fun and
enjoyable time with your family and friends. We
bless you that you will take joy in being physically
active and in running and playing, and that you
will have an understanding and a desire to obey
the Word of Wisdom and the other counsel
that we’ve received about how we should treat
our bodies in the scriptures and from latter-day
prophets and Apostles. And we bless you that
you may know that your body is a temple, and
that you will treat it as such and that you will
always have the expectation for other people to
treat it that way.
We bless you mentally and emotionally, that
you will be curious about the world around you,
that you will do well in school, and that you will
learn everything you need to know to achieve the
dreams and hopes and goals that you will have
in your life. We bless you with a compassion for
other people around you and that you will have
the ability to know the things that you can do
serve our Father in Heaven by serving others. We
bless you, too, that you will take joy in the beauty
of the world around you and that you will always
be cognizant of the impact of the things you do
and your lifestyle on the world around you and
on the people around you.
Above all, we bless you spiritually, that
you will grow with faith, with knowledge of the
existence of your Father in Heaven and of the
Atonement of Jesus Christ in your life. We bless
you that you will gain a testimony of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and of the
prophet and the Apostles who lead it, and of

First impressions

HEADSHOT, WHICH IS FIONA’S FIRST PASSPORT PHOTO, TAKEN 3 JANUARY 2011;
PHOTO OF FIONA AND DINKY TAKEN 22 OCTOBER 2010

I

’m told that this column should be about my thoughts on my first six months of life. I’m
not really sure what a month is, or what “six” means, but I’ll give it a shot.
My first memory is of being warm and comfortable, and hearing Mama and Daddy
telling me about how they planned to “bust me out of there.” I wasn’t sure that sounded
all that great—I mean, it was a little cramped in there, but it wasn’t so bad. I just went to
sleep and the next thing I knew, my warm, cozy space was gone and I was surrounded by lights,
voices, cold air, and rough towels. Fortunately, I went right back to sleep in about five minutes.
Those first few days were a blur. I still slept a lot, but each nap was interrupted by
some unpleasant experience. Sometimes it was a diaper change; other times I had to learn how
to eat; and other times it was some sharp thing being stuck in my heel. I began to feel I had
been born to baby torturers. After we left the hospital and came home, there was time for me
to take it all in. We had some good times making faces at each other and playing games, which I
hadn’t done before. Eventually, I realized that no matter how long or how loudly I protested the
diaper changes, they weren’t going to stop.
I’ve made some discoveries and learned some
things about myself. I found out, for example, that I
have hands and that I can control where they go. I’ve
gotten in touch with my inner self and identified some
deep-seated fears, like the vacuum and the blender.
There have been times I felt I was near starvation, and
have been relieved to see that the bottle was ready
just moments before I probably would have fainted
in weakness. There was a moment of clarity when I
realized that Mama and Daddy don’t cease to exist
when they walk out of the room. I’ve also learned about
a few adrenaline surges, like being tossed up in the air
or having a toy almost dropped on my face, and had a
few moments of abiding joy, like being tickled and bounced on Mama and Daddy’s bed, or the
feeling of curling up in my fleece and falling asleep on my side after a long day. And, like any
other baby, I have some dreams: typing on the keyboard while Mama and Daddy are working,
crumpling up an entire newspaper, and putting that—whatever it is—in my mouth.
Okay, well, it’s time for me to go play with Dinky. And find out where my bottle is. It’s
tough being in charge sometimes, but somebody’s got to do it. d

By FIONA

 Fiona and her pet
squirrel, Dinky.

7

Fiona’s arrival
A PHOTO ESSAY
14 July 2010
Making ourselves at
home at the hospital

2

1 7.44
Glasgow, our IKEA dragon,
keeps us company.

7

2 7.46
Susan’s favorite food at the
hospital is ice chips, mostly
because it’s the only thing
she can eat. She is hooked
up to all sorts of equipment
that monitors her and Fiona’s
vital signs.
3 17.22
Dustin gets all suited up for
Susan’s epidural.
1

4 17.25
Anesthesiologist: “Do you
have any questions about the
epidural?”
Susan: “How fast can
you get it done?”
5 17.25
The necessities: chocolate
Teddy Grahams, a banana,
and a cell phone.
6 18.04
Apparently, the most
convenient place for doctors
to measure Susan’s pulse
is in her toe—probably
because it’s the only place
on Susan’s body that isn’t
already attached to a piece
of equipment.
7 18.05
The biggest side effect of
hospitalization: extreme
boredom.

8

4

3

6

5
Stork Bites
The crunch that delivers

6

15 July 2010
Fiona enters the
world—and is none
too happy about it

3

1 1.42
Two minutes after she was
born, a first-ever photo of
Fiona is captured.

1

4

2 1.48
Fiona is weighed and her
length measured for the first
time. The scale indicates that
she is 7 pounds, 15.4 ounces;
she was 19.5 inches long.
3 1.53
Susan holds Fiona for the
second time. (The first time
wasn’t captured on film.)
4 2.36
Dustin holds Fiona for the
first time.
5 2.57
You’ll notice that in all these
photos, Fiona is either
screaming or sleeping. In
this photo, Fiona’s first bath
warrants the former reaction.

5

6 3.01
With a cap on her head and
a diaper on her bottom,
Fiona is ready to take on the
world.

1 2.59
Just 1 hour, 19 minutes old,
and Fiona has achieved inner
peace.
2 3.03
The nurses were professional
swaddlers; they always
wrapped Fiona up into a
perfect little portable baby
log.
3 18.29
Fiona meets Grammy and
Papa for the first time.

3

1

4 19.23
Fiona meets Mimi for the
first time.

16 July 2010
Fiona and Susan enjoy
the good life at the
hospital

4

5 13.46
Sleeping like a little baby log.
6 13.55
Susan and Fiona soak up
some rays through a hospital
window.
7 14.07
Fiona takes a peek at
Glasgow the Dragonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and
gets a first-ever photo taken
with her eyes open.

10

6

2

5

2

17 July 2010
Fiona comes home
from the hospital
1 14.27
Suited up in her robot
onesie, Fiona is ready to go
home.
2 14.44
Fiona sees the outside world
for the first time.

5 15.04
Fiona and Susan take Ride
On route 29 from Sibley
Memorial Hospital through
Montgomery County,
Maryland, to the Friendship
Heights station on Metro’s
Red Line.
6 15.28
Fiona sleeps as a subway
train comes roaring into the
station.

18 July 2010
Fiona’s 0th birthday
6

7

7 16.24
Susan and Dustin celebrate
Fiona’s homecoming. Also
present for the celebration
are Grammy and Papa,
Aunt Karen, Uncle Bob,
and cousins Michael and
Charlotte.

he journey began at 11.10 on a
Wednesday morning, when we boarded
the westbound 1 Cardinal. Because it’s
an overnight train, the seats have extra legroom,
even though we were traveling in coach. This
came in handy when Fiona was ready for her nap,
since there was plenty of room for her car seat at
our feet. But she wasn’t that interested in a nap
for a while. After all, it was her first train trip,
and she had to explore her new surroundings.
The seats were interesting, as were all the other
people passing by in the aisle—but nothing was
as interesting as 2 looking out the window
at the trees, rocks, cars, and buildings that we
passed. Fiona lived up to the slogan on her new
shirt, which said “Amtrak baby.” She was so
enthralled by the train (and so naturally eventempered) that passengers walked by and said,
with surprise, “Oh, a baby! … There’s a baby in
this car?”
We arrived a bit late in Charleston. After
some confusion about how to get from the train
station to the bridge, we crossed the Kanawha
River into the city. Things seemed a bit dead
downtown, and when we arrived at our hotel,
we asked if any restaurants in the area might be
open after 21.00. No luck. So, instead, in a display
of 3 American-style hedonism, we ordered
a Hawai‘ian pizza, got a Dr. Pepper from the
vending machine in the hall, and sat on the bed
eating our dinner and watching TV. Although
Fiona didn’t get to partake of the pizza and soda,
she was satisfied nonetheless, because it was the
first time she had ever watched TV. She would

1
2

3
4

5
6

8

PHOTOS 2 AND 3 TAKEN 22 SEPTEMBER 2010; PHOTOS 4–9 TAKEN 23 SEPTEMBER 2010;
PHOTOS 1 AND 10–12 TAKEN 24 SEPTEMBER 2010; MAPS ON PAGES 12 AND 14 BY BING MAPS, http://maps.bing.com

7

9

10
12

not take her eyes off it. Good thing we don’t one.
On Thursday, we walked to the
4 state capitol. Fiona fell asleep on the way
there, but she woke up when it was time to
5 climb the steps. As we carried her into the
building, she was 6 staring up at the ceiling,
and what a ceiling—the rotunda was beautifully
decorated. We visited both 7 the House and
the Senate chambers and the governor’s office,
where Fiona stood at the 8 podium where the
governor gives press conferences.
From the capitol, we took a rubber-wheeled
trolley to the farmers’ market, where we saw
hundreds of pumpkins, heirloom tomatoes, and
dahlias, and explored an amazing store called The
Purple Onion. They had all sorts of bulk food
items, including dried beans in varieties we had
never seen and chocolate-covered everything.
Our main purchase: a gallon Ziploc bag full of
Lucky Charms marshmallows. Then came lunch
in downtown Charleston and a visit to Ellen’s
Homemade Ice Cream and Taylor Books.
One of our final activities of the day
was a visit to the Charleston Town Center.
Unremarkable in most ways, the mall does have
both air conditioning and a pretty cool toy store
where Fiona and Dustin crawled into a
9 playhouse. Later, as Fiona sat in her stroller,
Dustin found a squirrel puppet and popped it
in front of her, dancing to an Elvis song. Fiona
brightened up and gave the squirrel a huge smile.
We didn’t buy the squirrel then, but later went
to a toy store at home and adopted Dinky, the
Charleston squirrel’s brother.
For dinner, we went to the Vandalia
Grille, which had some delicious fries and
nice décor. Fiona slept on a bench briefly
while we ate. Then, it was back to our hotel
for a good night’s sleep before our trip home.
The next morning, Fiona woke up at
about 5.00, as she normally did, after about
six hours of sleep. I was tired, so rather than
getting up to feed her immediately, I rocked
her to see if I could get a few more minutes
out of her. Two hours later, she woke up
again, and from then on, Fiona was an
eight-hour baby. We got to the train station
with plenty of time for some early-morning
11
pictures with the 10 South Side Bridge in
the background. Fiona demonstrated her
understanding of safety procedures by
11 standing behind the red line on the platform
before the train arrived.
On the train ride home, we ate lunch in the
12 dining car, which was luxurious as usual.
We discussed how impressed we were with
Charleston, which was not at all how we pictured
it, given most Americans’ typical impression of
West Virginia. It was a relaxing and interesting
few days with our new baby.

n Friday, 5 November—my
birthday—we went on our second big
train trip as a family. We had planned
to take our trip to Fredericksburg, Virginia, the
week before, but we had to change our plans due
to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, which
was held in Washington on 30 October and will
be covered in a future edition of this magazine.
In any case, Fredericksburg was a lovely place to
spend a fall birthday weekend.
We had some delays in our departure. That
morning, two trains had crashed into each other
at Union Station. “Crashed” may be the wrong
term, because it wasn’t necessarily all that serious
in terms of property damage or injuries, but
every train for the rest of the day was delayed.
We took the VRE, a commuter train with an
unusual arrangement on its two-level cars. The
aisle between the seats on the upper level does
not exist—it’s open to the lower level. Scary, if
you ask me. But once I sat down, it was less so.
Fiona entertained herself with her 1 fuzzy dice,
which hung nicely from a cup holder in front of
us, while the commuters across the imaginary
aisle commented on how lovely, smart, and wellbehaved she was.
After we arrived, we walked up Caroline
Street, past some old- and Halloweeny-looking
houses, to our hotel. As we approached the
2 Inn at the Olde Silk Mill, I had some doubts
about it. It seemed to be part of a small strip mall,
complete with a long, narrow (and nearly empty)
parking lot in front. Much to our relief, it turned
out to be quite a nice place. We stayed in the
Stonewall Jackson suite, a bedroom, bathroom,
and living room with old photographs of Jackson
on the walls. The bed was so high off the ground
that they even had a set of steps to help us up.
That wasn’t necessary for us, spring chickens that
we are. We didn’t spend much time in our room,
but if we were ever to go back to Fredericksburg,

5
7

9

8

10
11

12

say, for Christmas, it would make a very cozy
holiday hotel.
For dinner, we went to the Otter House
restaurant, which was not the most memorable
place we’ve ever eaten. It was cold outside, so
rather than explore, we went back for a good
night’s rest to prepare for Saturday’s adventures.
On Saturday morning, we headed
3 downtown, stopping to note some
historical—and 4 not-so-historical—markers
along the way. At the visitor’s center, we signed
up for a 5 carriage ride around town. It was
Fiona’s first ride in a horse-drawn vehicle, and
she was attentive as ever. We explored some
6 shops, including an Irish store, a bookstore,
and some antique stores. One store in town had
some 7 amazing window displays straight out
of the ’50s, shiny and color-coordinated.
One local historical attractions is the Hugh
Mercer Apothecary Shop and Museum. We
joined some Girl Scouts as our guide explained
how “the good doctor” would amputate our
arms, should that become necessary, and checked
out 8 leeches in jars just waiting for a patient.
Upstairs, Fiona stuck her head through the
9 hole where gentlemen would get their wigs
re-powdered after treatment.
Another of Fredericksburg’s claims to fame
is that Mary Washington lived out her days there
in a house built by her son, George. We walked
by the University of Mary Washington, along
some back streets with large, fancy houses,
and found the memorial to “Mary, mother of
Washington,” which we thought sounded like a
tame way to curse. Across the street was a
10 Delorean that may have been ready for time
travel, but we didn’t have any garbage to stuff into
the gas tank.
For a late lunch, we stopped at Eileen’s
Bakery and Café, which is housed in an old
church. Although most of their sandwiches were
already sold out for the day, we still ate quite well
and enjoyed sitting in the dining area, which was
once a chapel. Afterwards, we looked for more
warm places to hang out until our train arrived.
We discovered a used book store called
11 Riverby Books, which also has a location here
in D.C. They even had an area where bookbinders
repaired old books, though, unfortunately, no
one was there working on one so we could watch.
At the train station, we watched a Sesame
Street video on our fancy phone. The train pulled
in, we hopped on, and Fiona took her place in
12 her own seat. She took a nap and it seemed
we were home in minutes. And that’s the way it
was. d

15

OUR TIMES
By DONALD G. McNEIL JR.

“We are safe in the
refuge, the 33 of us”
Trapped 2,300
feet (700 meters)
underground after
a mining accident
on 5 August 2010,
33 miners in Chile
were rescued as the
world watched on
13 October 2010.

This article originally ran
on page A1 of The New
York Times on Thursday,
14 October 2010, with the
title “33 Miners Are Out,
Defying Dire Predictions on
Fitness and Spirit: Medical
Care, Good Diet and Even
Some Running”. Minor
typographical changes have
been made to dates and
commas.
J A N U A RY 2 0 1 1

D

efying grim predictions about how
they would fare after two months trapped
underground, many of the Chilean miners
came bounding out of their rescue capsule on
Wednesday as pictures of energy and health, able
not only to walk, but, in one case, to leap around,
hug everyone in sight, and lead cheers.
The miners’ apparent robustness was
testimony to the rescue diet threaded down to
them through the tiny borehole that reached
them on 22 August, but also to the way they
organized themselves to keep their environment
clean, find water, and get exercise. Another factor
was the excellent medical care they received from
Chilean doctors who ministered to them through
tubes leading 2,300 feet into the earth.
Late on Wednesday, the last of the 33 miners
was pulled to safety. Chile’s health minister,
Jaime Mañalich, said that one miner had acute
pneumonia but was improving with antibiotics,
and that two others needed dental surgery. At
the moment, he added, the rest seemed to be in
“more than satisfactory” condition.
Indeed, the 27th miner to be rescued,
Franklin Lobos, is a former soccer star who
juggled a soccer ball on his foot moments after
emerging from the capsule.
While many details of the miners’ health
care and living conditions have been reported,
misconceptions and misinformation persisted
as the ordeal continued and as the public’s
fascination with their deprivation increased.
In recent days, some television and newspaper
commentators had speculated that the men
would develop the bends on the way up, or suffer
heart attacks or blood clots. Some people said
that their muscles would have atrophied, that
they could have serious skin funguses, vitamin
deficiencies, and rotted teeth and be blinded by
the daylight.
None of those predictions came true—and
some bordered on the absurd.
“The bends?” said Dr. J. D. Polk, chief
of space medicine for the Johnson Space
Center of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, whom the Chileans consulted.
“The miners were at sea level. The mine entrance
is at 2,400 feet. They were no more at risk of
getting the bends than you are going up to the

15th floor in your building.”
The men kept themselves fit and received
excellent medical care. And they were not
confined to the “rescue chamber,” the size of a
Manhattan studio apartment. (The first drill bit
reached the chamber in August and the miners
attached a note to it saying that all 33 were alive.)
“They had the run of the mine,” said Jeffery
H. Kravitz, acting director for technical support
at the United States Mine Safety and Health
Administration. With half a mile of tunnels open,
he said, “they had places to exercise and to use
for waste.” One miner ran several miles a day.
“They even had a sort of waterfall they
could take a shower under,” Mr. Kravitz said.
“They requested shampoo, and shaved for their
families.”
Also, although fresh air was pumped in,
asphyxiation was never a danger. While coal
mines can fill with methane gas, the San José
operation was a copper and gold mine. The
air was nearly 90 degrees and humid, but it
contained about 20 percent oxygen, like outside
air. The men dug three wells, and had potable
water.
Doctors from NASA and Chilean Navy
officers with experience in submarines
were consulted on the strains of prolonged
confinement. Alberto Iturra, a psychologist,
talked to the miners, sometimes several times
a day, to sort through their frustrations and
depression.
Over all, Chilean health authorities “did a
phenomenal job,” Dr. Polk said.
Just after the miners were discovered alive
on 22 August, they were in danger, he said. They
had survived for 17 days on just two spoonfuls
of tuna, a cup of milk, one cracker, and a bit of
a peach topping every other day. Their digestive
and insulin systems had nearly shut down and
they were breaking down their own fat and
muscle tissue.
People on starvation diets can be killed by
eating carbohydrates too quickly; as the body
struggles to make insulin in response, it can upset
the electrolyte balance, stopping the heart.
“We learned that the hard way in World
War II, giving candy bars to prisoners of war and
concentration camp inmates,” Dr. Polk said.

HUGO INFANTE/GOVERNMENT OF CHILE

 Chilean president
Sebastian Piñera sings the
national anthem with chief
supervisor Luis Urzúa,
the last miner out of the
rescue hole at the San José
mine near Copiapó, Chile,
on 13 October 2010.

Urine test strips were sent down the tube,
allowing Yonny Barrios, a miner with paramedic
training, to report that about half the miners were
dehydrated and spilling ketones and myoglobin
proteins into their urine, a sign that their muscles
were breaking down, from starvation and,
possibly, from sleeping on hot rocks.
They were told to nearly double the amount
of water they drank. Liquid gels with protein and
vitamins were sent down the three-inch tube in
packets known as “passenger pigeons.”
Slowly, day by day, their calories were
increased to normal levels.
By Chilean Independence Day, 18
September, they were fully recovered and getting
celebratory empanadas (baked as cylinders to fit
down the tube), barbecued steak (cut into strips),
and fresh papaya. Their request for wine was
declined. They got cola.
(More recently, they had to be monitored to
make sure they would fit in the rescue capsule, 21
inches in diameter.)
Eventually, all sorts of comfort goods were
going down three narrow tubes: dismantled
camp beds, clean clothes, letters, movies,
dominoes, tiny Bibles, toothbrushes, skin creams.
The smokers were first allowed only gum and
nicotine patches, but doctors eventually relented
and let 40 cigarettes a day go down.
The tubes also accommodated fiber optic
cables and, by the end, each miner was getting a
daily video consultation with a doctor. They also
had jobs to do, including reinforcing walls and
clearing debris from the rescue drills.
Mr. Barrios also took blood pressure

readings, sent up urine and blood samples,
and gave shots against tetanus, pneumonia,
meningitis, and flu.
Mario Gómez, 63, the oldest miner, had
silicosis—a respiratory disease caused by
breathing rock dust­—and was helped by inhalers,
though he developed pneumonia. Another miner
with diabetes received insulin.
Contrary to a rumor, the miners were
not in the disorienting dark all the time. Small
fluorescent lights were sent down early in their
ordeal and a circadian rhythm was kept up, with a
red light at nighttime.
The rumor about the bends, Dr. Kravitz said,
could have arisen from the 2002 Quecreek mine
rescue in Pennsylvania, in which pressurized
air was pumped into a flooding mine to hold
back water. Ten compression chambers were
set up in case any miner got the bends, but none
did. The bends, or decompression sickness, is a
threat to scuba divers who surface too quickly;
nitrogen that dissolved into their blood when
they were under heavy water pressure comes out
and collects as bubbles in their joints and blood
vessels, causing pain and, in extreme cases, death.
Early on in the crisis, the Chilean authorities
asked for advice from NASA, which has
experience in keeping astronauts physically and
mentally healthy.
All the miners came out of the capsules in
expensive dark glasses—donated by Oakley—to
protect them from the sun, but the main health
effect they all shared was very pale skin from
being in the dark so long. d
LIZ ROBBINS CONTRIBUTED REPORTING.

This article was revised to reflect the
following correction.
Correction: 15 October 2010
An article on Thursday about the
rescue of Chilean miners trapped for
two months misstated the diameter
of the cage used to bring them to the
surface. It was 21 inches, not 26. And
because of an editing error, the article
also misstated the reason that fresh
air was pumped into the mine. It was
for the comfort of the men; it was not
used to prevent their asphyxiation.
(The miners were never in danger of
suffocating because the air in the mine
naturally contained about the same
amount of oxygen as outside air.)

17

In the city, we pass
by people who
are like us: young
professionals who
enjoy life in the city.
But we also pass by
plenty of people
who aren’t like us.
They are of different
religions (or none
at all) and political
opinions. They are
of different colors
and nationalities, and
some of them speak
different languages.
Most of them have
homes; some of them
do not. But we’re
all there together.
Fiona sees that, and
she sees that people
who don’t look like
her are just fine, too.

J A N U A RY 2 0 1 1

The city is
the place for us

A

round the time Fiona was born, a
lot of people asked us one question: “So,
are you going to move?” Some of those
making this inquiry were undoubtedly thinking
of our one-bedroom apartment. In that context,
the simple answer is yes. We would eventually
like for Fiona to have her own bedroom. But
when babies are small, they wake up so much
during the night that it doesn’t make a lot of
sense to leave them in another room. Besides,
our current apartment is rather large for a onebedroom place, so we have more than enough
space. (In fact, if we could rearrange the walls
and squeeze in another bedroom somehow, this
apartment is actually a great size for us.)
But others, no doubt, had this apartment's
address in mind—in the heart of the District
of Columbia, one of the most urban places in
this country. See, in America the mindset goes
something like this: it’s great to live in the city
when you’re young, but as you begin to settle
down (they always use the phrase “settle down”)
and have your own family, you need to move to
the suburbs. For the children’s sake. Since, of
course, they need a yard to run and play in. Oh,
and the schools are better. And it’s just not good
to grow up around all that crime and all those
strange people.
There are millions of families who are
perfectly content with their suburban lives,
surrounded by acres of perfectly-manicured
lawns, shuttling from one cul-de-sac to the next
in minivans, and filling their McMansions with
all manner of fine furnishings and other products
stamped made in china that they bought at the
big-box store in the local strip mall.
That is definitely not the life we want for us.
Or for our children.
As of this writing, Fiona has never been in
a car. We hope that using a car for day-to-day
activities is as foreign to her as taking a bus or
subway is for a suburbanite. She clearly enjoys
riding the bus. Being able to be free from a car
seat and sit in our laps as we ride down the
street looking at all the interesting people and
buildings passing by—what a life! The dark inside
of a subway tunnel isn’t quite as interesting, but
seeing a loud, colorful subway train come roaring
into the station, with all those lights shining

through its windows, is always a thrill.
Running errands on Saturday
morning is a joy, not a chore. We’re able
to walk to get all the basic necessities
we need, and what a treat it is to step
out into the fresh air on a warm, sunny
Saturday morning to run up to the
farmer’s market to buy fruits and
vegetables and freshly-baked bread
or to stop by the bank to deposit a
check or to pick up an item from
the dry cleaner. On our way, we
pass by plenty of people who
are like us: young professionals
who enjoy life in the city. But
we also pass by plenty of people
who aren’t like us. They are
of different religions (or none
at all) and political opinions.
They are of different colors and
nationalities, and some of them
speak different languages. Most
of them have homes; some of
them do not. But we’re all there
together. Fiona sees that, and
she sees that people who don’t
look like her are just fine, too.
Then there is the sublime
beauty of the city—quaint
and majestic, organic and
geometric, embellished and
unadorned. A walk down a
simple sidestreet can be a
tour through history, with the
architectural styles of centuries
at your feet. The view from the
bus as it crosses Pennsylvania
Avenue NW reveals one of the
grandest and most sweeping
vistas ever conceived. The
intersecting vaults of Metro
Center, block after block
of colorful rowhouses, the
Great Hall of the Library
of Congress—all create
a place that fills our lives
with beauty.
Yes, indeed, the
city is the place for us. d

PAINTING BY ARNOLD FRIBERG/COURTESY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

en years ago this month—on
Wednesday, 17 January 2001, to be
exact—I entered the Missionary Training
Center in Provo, Utah, to begin my service as
a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was there that I had
one of my most profound experiences of being
taught by the Spirit.
One day in class, we were having a
discussion on 3 Nephi 11. This chapter records
the beginning of Jesus Christ’s ministry among
the Nephites and Lamanites. That made it an
important chapter to us as missionaries; we
would usually ask new investigators, on our first
visit, to read this chapter as a starting point in
developing a testimony of the Book of Mormon
and of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
This class discussion took the form of a
question-and-answer session: one member of
the class would ask another about a particular
verse or aspect of the chapter, and the other class
member would give a response. This exchange
was done in front of the entire class. Once the
response was given, another member of the
class would ask a question directed to another
classmate, and so on.
A sister missionary was the first up to ask a
question, and she decided to direct her question
to me. She referred to verse 8:
And it came to pass, as they understood they
cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and
behold, they saw a Man descending out of
heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe;
and he came down and stood in the midst of
them; and the eyes of the whole multitude
were turned upon him, and they durst not
open their mouths, even one to another, and
wist not what it meant, for they thought it
was an angel that had appeared unto them.
She then asked, “Why did the people think
that an angel had appeared to them?”
My first though was, Well, that’s a bit of a silly
question. Surely there’s something more profound
she can think of to ask than that! Then, despite
my skepticism, the Spirit had an opportunity to
teach me something that was truly profound.
I looked at the preceding verses. In verse

3 we read that the people “heard a voice as if
it came out of heaven; and they cast their eyes
round about, for they understood not the voice
which they heard.” In the next verse, the people
hear the voice a second time and yet again fail
to understand it. Then a third time they hear
the voice, but this time
is a little different: they
“did open their ears to
hear it; and their eyes
were towards the sound
thereof; and they did
look steadfastly towards
heaven, from whence the
sound came.”
The voice was that
of the Father introducing
Jesus Christ: “Behold my
Beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased, in
whom I have glorified my
name—hear ye him.” It is
in the next verse that we
read the people thought
it was an angel who had
appeared unto them. So,
clearly, they understood
the voice’s words, but they
failed to comprehend the
voice’s message. Why?
Look back at verse 5. They “open[ed] their
ears to hear” the voice, “and their eyes were
towards the sound thereof.” What was missing?
“Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind
and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall
come upon you and which shall dwell in your
heart” (Doctrine and Covenants 8:2). They had
attuned their physical senses—their eyes and
their ears—to the Lord’s voice, but they hadn’t
turned their spiritual senses—their hearts—to his
message.
The same applies to us in our own lives. We
can hear the Lord’s words and we can see his
work moving forward. We may even go through
the motions ourselves. But unless we open our
hearts to his gospel and his message, we will fail,
as did those in the Western Hemisphere who
were witnessing Jesus Christ’s coming among
them, to see the Lord’s presence in our lives. d

WE BELIEVE
IN CHRIST
By DUSTIN

I thought it was a silly
question. But the Spirit
had something very
profound to teach me.

J A N U A RY 2 0 1 1

CLOSING
THOUGHTS
By SUSAN

Fiona’s arrival has
changed everything.
Except, we can’t quite
remember what life
was like without her.

The new lives it feels
we’ve always had

A

lthough many things have happened
since July, it’s all overshadowed by
one thing. Fiona’s arrival has changed
everything. Within a few hours of her birth,
we already couldn’t remember what it was like
before we had her. She was not a stranger—she
was familiar, someone we had known for a long
time. She seemed to think the same thing about
us (most of the time, anyway—during diaper
changes, she wasn’t so sure).
One of our reasons for starting this magazine
is to record Fiona’s life so that we will remember
and she will be able to learn what she was like
when she was very young. She has grown and
changed so quickly that some things, like the
way her chin wobbled when she cried for the
first three days, were never captured on film,
but we will always remember anyway. Most of
her little quirks and eccentricities lasted longer
than three days, but she has already aged out of

Fiona’s sleeping positions

Field goal

Disco

Riverdance

them nonetheless. She always wanted to suck on
something, and the nurses in the hospital taught
Dustin to use his little finger for “suck training.”
So Fiona got in the habit of sucking on Dustin’s
little finger every night as she got ready for bed
(because those diaper changes were just so
traumatic). She didn’t like pacifiers, at least until
we found the right one—it is now one of her best
friends, and she doesn’t spend much time sucking
on our fingers anymore.
During Fiona’s first few weeks, when she still
slept in her crib, we were amazed at how much

she moved around. She could roll onto her side
with ease, and she had several different sleeping
positions: left side, right side, field goal, disco,
and Riverdance. Once she started sleeping in her
car seat, she stopped rolling around so much and
had to relearn that skill after a few months.
Mealtimes brought out some interesting
responses from Fiona. She learned pretty quickly
what a bottle was, and she would pant and shake
her head as it approached her wide-open mouth.
Because of her voracious appetite combined
with acid reflux, we had to take her bottle away
every few minutes to try to slow her down. She
was not pleased with that. Nor was she enthused
about being burped. Once the acid reflux started
to go away, we let her eat as she wanted, and
she developed some new eating habits. For a
few weeks in the fall, she would raise one hand
as she ate from her bottle, almost as if she had
something to add to the conversation (she never
did say much, though, since she was so busy
eating).
We have learned a lot about babies in the
last few months. Who knew that babies get acid
reflux (or that it causes them to throw up entire
meals every couple days)? Who knew that some
babies just won’t sleep anywhere except their
car seat? Some things, like how much we enjoy
watching her play, are less unexpected. And a
few things are welcome revelations, such as the
knowledge that it’s not that hard to go out and do
fun things with a baby.
Many of the things we’ve documented in
our first issue have been big events—Fiona’s
birth, our trips, and so on. But some of the
things we have enjoyed the most haven’t been
photographed or recorded in any other way.
Sitting together in the evening and playing
games, sleeping in the living room next to the
Christmas tree when it was too cold in our
bedroom, and putting Fiona between Mama and
Daddy in bed on Saturday mornings have been
some of the happiest experiences we’ve had. We
have learned about the peace and safety that can
be found at home with family. d

“Fiona, you’ve been born into a very
loving home, and we bless you that as
you mature and grow physically, mentally,
emotionally, and spiritually that you will
follow the pattern set by our Savior, Jesus
Christ, as he grew ‘in wisdom and [in]
stature, and in favour with God and man.’”
SEE “FIONA’S BABY BLESSING”,
PAGE 6